5 Named to Housing Agency

Mayor Marion Barry nominated a new five-member board of directors yesterday for the D.C. Housing Finance Agency, whose powers were curbed by the City Council earlier this year.

The HFA was created six years ago to help provide financing for low- and moderate-income housing by issuing tax-exempt bonds.

Barry's nominations were to replace the six public members who resigned in late February after the council's action. He nominated for two-year terms two members who had resigned -- Ruth R. Banks, a lawyer, and Blenna A. Cunningham, senior vice president of the United National Bank of Washington.

Jerome Shuman, a Howard University law professor and former chairman of the D.C. Rental Accommodations Commission, was also nominated for a two-year term.

Nominated for one-year terms were Erman T. Clay Sr., a retired Treasury Department management analyst and president of the Far Northeast-Southeast Council, and John Mason, board chairman of NS&T Bankshares Inc. and NS&T Bank.

The City Council revoked the board's power to approve its own bond issues after some council members complained that the quasi-independent agency was not helping enough low- and moderate-income families and not abiding by council members' wishes on housing projects in their wards.

The council gave itself the right to approve all projects and bond issues. The mayor vetoed the legislation, but the council overrode the veto. The council voted also to change the composition of the board from nine members to five members to be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council.